Three Out of 2U - Ry Rivard, Iside Higher Ed

Three top-tier universities have backed away from a partnership with their peers and the company 2U to create a pool of for-credit online courses. Despite a year of considerable hype as leading colleges and universities created online partnerships to try to redefine higher education, a recent spate of strong faculty reactions make clear that tradition will not change easily or silently, especially at institutions with a strong history of faculty influence. Citing a variety of reasons, the three universities’ decisions offer a spectrum of reactions to a new wave of online learning and the companies, in this case 2U, that are trying to drive that change. Inside Higher Ed a group of 10 top-tier universities that said last November they planned to offer courses through 2U for a project, billed as "one of a kind," known as Semester Online. But as this fall’s launch date approached, these institutions backed away. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/17/three-universities-back-away-plan-pool-courses-online